Household pets have demonstrated a preference for drinking from streams or other moving bodies of water. Dogs, for example, have historically been drawn toward recently flushed toilets and running garden hoses for drinks of water. Cats have proven especially attracted to free falling water and have been frequently observed crouching next to sinks in kitchens or bathrooms, or jumping into bathtubs or showers. However, animals have found such opportunities to be sporadic or infrequent, causing the animals to seek out leaking faucets or other sources of running water inadvertently left on by the animal' owners.
Without sources of moving water, animals have been traditionally left with bowls of standing water that have not held the same level of fascination. More frequently than not, bowls of water have been left to stagnate or otherwise become stale due to the lack of movement. Accordingly, animals have been instinctively drawn to moving, fresh water. Turbulence within the moving water causes aeration by breaking the surface tension of standing water and drawing oxygen into the water from the atmosphere (as evidenced by bubbles in the water). This turbulence and resulting aeration has been most effectively demonstrated by a stream of water falling into a body of water.
Pet owners have routinely complained, however, about the animals' tendency to seek untraditional sources of water. Such habits have proven to be a nuisance and an occasional source of embarrassment when quest have found the family pet drinking from the toilette. Worse at times have been repeated begging by cats for faucets to be turned on. Moreover, when owners have forgotten to turn the faucets off, countless gallons of fresh water have been wasted, increasing water bills. The animals' quest for moving water has also proven unsanitary, where the animals have jump onto kitchen counters near food preparation areas.
Other considerations specific to cats have included the prevalence of Feline Urologic Syndrome (FUS) which has been shown to create urinary tract obstruction by mineral crystals, and of kidney disease which has lead to renal failure. It has been demonstrated that easy access to running water causes some cats to drink more than they normally would from a bowl of standing water. The importance of increased water intake and optimal hydration is to: a) create a more dilute urinary output which minimizes crystal formation and possible obstruction; and b) maintain blood pressure at optimal levels to support the filtering duties of diseased kidneys.
Previous watering devices have been developed that provided animals with moving water. For example, each of U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,609, U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,437, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,934 disclosed animal watering devices in the form of a free falling, continuous stream of water. Specifically, each device included a pump that moved water from a reservoir to a discharge ramp, where the water flowed into a container in a unidirectional manner. Some embodiments of the devices permitted a user to adjust the rate at which the water flowed. However, in order to do so, the user had to stop the flow of water and then placing one or more washers within a partially submerged water intake tube. Accordingly, while such systems provided sources of continually flowing water for animals, the limited control over the flow of the water proved to be inconvenient.
The previous watering device designs have commonly provided single streams of water could not be easily oriented with respect to the container. This often left animals with only a single direction from which the animal could approach the watering device to drink. As such, some prior watering devices have not made it easy for more than one animal to simultaneously drink from the watering device. Moreover, the aesthetic value of such devices has been limited due to the positioning of pumps and secondary reservoirs in plain view. Single streams of moving water, while better than still pools, have also provided limited amounts of aeration within the water due to the single, focused location of the stream's impact with the main body of water.